Typological Characteristics of Prepositions

Prepositions in English and Ukrainian are characterised by both isomorphic and allomorphic features. Isomorphism is clearly observed in the morphological structure of prepositions which can be in the contrasted languages as follows:

The only structural difference, therefore, is in the group of simple prepositions, among which there are some Ukrainian prepositions consisting of a single consonant or vowel (в, у, о, з). Cf. в очі, у возі, о п'ятій годині, з гір.

Mainly common are the parts of speech from which many preposi-

tions are formed (except the diyepryslivnyk). They are: a) nouns: beside, in front of, in accordance with внаслідок, у зв'язку з, слідом за, коло, кругом; b) verbals (participles, diyepryslivnyks): owing to, concerning, including включаючи, завдяки, зважаючи; с) adverbs (the largest number): along, before, down, among близько, довкола, ззаду, обабіч, серед, etc.

The lexico-grammatical meaning of prepositions as semi-notional words is isomorphic in both languages as well. Prepositions may be temporal (before noon до обіду, after that після того, during the war під час війни, since Monday від понеділка, until he came доки він не прийде, etc.); local (along the road вздовж дороги, across the street через шлях, among the books серед книжок, in front of me переді мною), behind/over the house за/над хатою; causal (because of that через те що, in view of all this з погляду на це, or pervasive (he poured water all over me з голови до ніг); concessive (despite his expectations всупереч його очікуванням).

Prepositions are characterised by an almost exclusive bilateral combinability with any left-hand notional and a right-hand nominal part of speech/its equivalent. Cf.

noun

verb

adjective

pronoun

numeral

adverb

stative

noun

verb/gerund*

pronoun

adjective

numeral

word — group

A preposition expressing a relation between two entities forms a prepositional complement with the right-hand component. The latter is almost always morphologically amorphous, except when it is a personal or interrogative/relative w/h-pronoun having in English an objective case form, eg: ask about me, done by him/them, promised by whom, etc. Ukrainian

Only in English.

prepositional complements are almost entirely marked by case inflexions, i. e. governed analytico-synthetically (cf. книжка для неї/Марії, лист від товариша, троє з товаришів, засмаглий на сонці, легко на душі).

In titles, however, prepositions may have only a right-hand combinability, eg:

" To a skylark" (Shelley). " Of Human Bondage" (Maugham), " Under the Greenwood Tree" (T. Hardy), " До Основ'яненка" (Шевченко), До мого фортеп'яно" (Л. Українка), " Під мінаретами" (Коцюбинський), " На майдані" (Тичина), etc.

A peculiar feature of English is the postposed use of prepositions in some interrogative sentences (What paper have you subscribed to?); in exclamations (What an accident he's got in!), or in the subjective with the infinitive constructions (She's impossible to work with).

According to their meaning prepositions in the contrasted languages may express various syntactic relations, the main of which are as follows:

1. Agentive relations: the play written by Shakespeare бути /під чиєюсь високою рукою/під орудою. 2. Objective relations: to be angry/ satisfied with somebody сердитись на когось, помиритися з кимсь. 3. Attributive relations: birds of a feather, the man in question товариші по школі, друзі з Канади. 4. Various adverbial relations: a) temporal: to depart on Monday, to arrive in spring від'їжджати в понеділок, приїхати в березні/через півроку; b) local: in the cottage, behind the fence, in front of the house у хаті, за тином, під лісом; с) of direction: into the room, go out of the room, he went to the door у кімнату/з кімнати, зайдіть до хати; d) of manner or comparison: to look in astonishment, the air came in a warm wave глянути з подивом; радощів у серці через край (Тичина); е) of attendant circumstances: Winter set in early and unexpectedly with a heavy fall of snow. (Cronin) зима прийшла зі снігопадами; f) of cause: My dog pants, with the heat собака задихається від спеки. Троє діток на віспу вмерли. (Федькович); g) of concession: they continued their way despite the rain, he would do it in spite of the obstacles. Чорнявому зрадливому на лютеє горе... (Шевченко). Він приїде незважаючи на хворобу; h) of possession: books of his brother, the

windows of the cottage. Стояв генерал... при всіх орденах (Яновський). Отже, будемо й ми при розумі. (Головко). 5. Various other relations as: a) Relations of resemblance: she is like her mother (він схожий на батька), b) Relations of subordination: to be secretary to the firm manager бути секретарем у посла, с) Relations of dissociation: to be devoid of suspicion бути вільним від підозри/бути поза підозрою, etc.

These are the main but far from all the relations expressed by prerepositions in English and Ukrainian word-groups and utterances. Allomorphism is observed only in the nature of the syntactic functions of prepositions. These are mainly linking in English, where prepositions generally do not require any case form from the right-hand nominal component (cf. a book of my brother, toys/or the child, four of the boys). An exception present the so-called grammaticalised preposition of, to, for, by and with which explicitly express the corresponding case relations, namely: of the genitive case relation (books of hers, theirs), to the dative case relation (sent to them, books for him/us), by and with the instrumental (орудний) case relation (written by him/them, us, went with her, us, them), etc.

In Ukrainian, on the other hand, prepositions govern nouns, pronouns, numerals, substantivised adjectives and nominal word-groups, eg: праця в садку/на полі, лежати під грушею (під дубом), лист від нього/від першого, захист від польових гризунів, книжка для двох, переляк від червоного, etc.

Ukrainian prepositions may be used with nominals in a certain case form only, as for instance, in the genitive case (без, біля, від, для, до, and others) or with two cases, for example, with the accusative and instrumental case (над, під, перед), and sometimes with three cases (з, за, між, у): у житті, у відповідь, з горя/горем. Therefore, Ukrainian prepositions, unlike the English ones, help to express different syntactic relations through case forms of the subordinated nominal parts of speech in word-groups and utterances/sentences. Each of the more than 130 Ukrainian prepositions is used to express one or more case relations as can party be observed from the following table:

Table 22